proper spacing for an essay

To learn about essays, it is important to understand why essays are such an important part of academics. To write a proper essay one needs to have structure of thought, imagination, and creativity. An examiner can tell a lot about a student by looking at the way a student writes his essays. Thus, essays have become an inseparable part of academics. The two most important parts of an essay are structure and content. The structure is the format and the content is whatever you write adhering to the essay format. Before you write the contents of your essay, you need to get the format right; because without the format done properly, the examiner will not even consider reading the contents of your essay. If you fail to follow the simple MLA (Modern Language Association) instructions on how to format your essays, the examiners will think that you do not even have the capability to follow simple instructions properly. Thus, not just the content of the essay but also your ability to format properly will be judged by the examiner. Hence, it is very important that you pay attention to the simple college essay formatting guidelines, which are given below. For college applications, you may want to take a 10-step course on college application essay writing to know more. Note: The formatting can be done easily in MS Word, so it is recommended that you write your essays in the program. Margins, Spacing, and Font Size First and foremost you should leave a marginal space of 1 inch from the top, bottom, left and right sides of the page. You can easily leave a margin space of one inches in Word by doing the following tasks: Go to the page layout option and click the margins tab. Click on the normal option, which is default to 1 inch space from all the sides. Each and every line of the paragraph should be double-spaced. Proper line spacing can be achieved in MS Word through the following.
Summary: MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page. Contributors:Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. Paiz, Michelle Campbell, Rodrigo Rodríguez-Fuentes, Daniel P. Kenzie, Purdue OWL StaffLast Edited: 2014-10-10 09:09:47 Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. To see a side-by-side comparison of the three most widely used citation styles, including a chart of all MLA citation guidelines, see the Citation Style Chart. You can also watch our MLA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel. General Format MLA style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing. MLA style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages. Writers who properly use MLA also build their credibility by demonstrating accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material by other writers. If you are asked to use MLA format, be sure to consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition). Publishing scholars and graduate students should also consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd edition). The MLA Handbook is available in most writing centers and reference libraries; it is also widely available in bookstores, libraries, and.
This is a brief tutorial I have created for users of Microsoft Word. As someone who proofreads many essays, I have seen a large number of people who are.
There are nearly as many different possible formats for writing a paper as there are instructors. The only way to know that your papers are going to conform exactly with what your instructors are looking for is to ask what they want! Ask to look at a sample paper. If all instructors could agree on one simple format, that would be nice, and that style would probably be something easy to remember, like the style recommended by the Modern Language Association. The college's Guide to Writing Research Papers contains a section on formatting papers, MLA-style, that should be helpful. Here are some generic suggestions for formatting your paper, attempted answers to the inevitable question: What's this paper supposed to look like? But remember, if you have any doubts or questions, ask your instructor! Word-processing is not just a good thing, a clever technological device to make your writing look good; it makes the composing and editing processes much easier and (some people claim) even fun; it is technology that you ignore to your peril! Double-space all typing in all documents. A serif typing font should be used, something like Times, Times Roman, or Times New Roman in a 12-point font size. Don't use anything fancy and avoid the non-serif fonts (except for headlines, if you have any), as they can become difficult to read after a while; cursive scripts are forbidden. Never mix font styles. Use one-inch margins (or a bit more, never less), all the way around the edge of your text. Do not use justified margins (even right margins), even though your word-processor makes that look really nifty. Justified margins tend to create some word-divisions and spacing that are not appropriate. Use plain black printing off a good laser or bubble-jet printer. Dot-matrix printing is acceptable if the copy is strong and dark; otherwise, bring your floppy disc into a computer lab where you.
Text only | Back The Proper Format for Essays Below are guidelines for the formatting of essays based on recommendations from the MLA (the Modern Language Association). Fonts: Your essay should be word processed in 12-point Times New Roman fonts. Double space: Your entire essay should be double spaced, with no single spacing anywhere and no extra spacing anywhere. There should not be extra spaces between paragraphs. Heading: In the upper left corner of the first page of your essay, you should type your name, the instructor's name, your class, and the date, as follows: Your Name Mr. Rambo ENG 1001-05 30 August 2013 Margins: According to the MLA, your essay should have a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, left, and right. Page Numbers: Your last name and the page number should appear in the upper right corner of each page of your essay, including the first page, as in Jones 3. Insert your name and the page number as a header. Do not type this information where the text of your essay should be. Title: Your essay should include a title. The title should be centered and should appear under the heading information on the first page and above the first line of your essay. The title should be in the same fonts as the rest of your essay, with no quotation marks, no underlining, no italics, and no bold. Indentation: The first line of each paragraph should be indented. According to the MLA, this indentation should be 1/2 inch or five spaces, but pressing [Tab] once should give you the correct indentation. Align Left: The text of your essay should be lined up evenly at the left margin but not at the right margin. In your word processor, choose Align Left. Do not choose Justify. Putting all of the above together, you should have a first page that looks like the following: Copyright Randy Rambo, 2013.
OVERVIEW This guide explains how to format your documents in Microsoft Word so that they follow the standard rules for formatting academic papers as described in most MLA and APA style books for undergraduate writing. These rules apply to most of the papers you will submit in your college classes, but in some cases your professors will want you to follow specific guidelines that may differ from those below. Always clarify with your professor which set of guidelines he or she wants you to follow before you submit a paper. Using standard formatting for academic papers shows that you understand the customs of the university community and therefore helps to boost your own credibility. Using unusual or highly distinctive formatting, on the other hand, suggests that your previous schooling did not adequately prepare you for university work. Consider the impact of unusual formatting: not only does it call attention to your paper in a way that might not be positive, professors might also see it as a sign that you’re trying to artificially inflate page length. Note: These instructions apply to all versions of Word for Mac and for the 2003 version of Word for Windows. I haven’t yet updated them to include instructions for the 2007 version of Word for Windows, but the tools should nevertheless be easy to find if you look around on the toolbar at the top. DOCUMENT MARGINS Rule: Papers submitted for review or grading should have 1” margins all around. This should be the default for Word, but if your default setting is to have left and right margins of 1.25”, change your default. Page length requirements are based on 1” margins. Instructions: Go to the Format menu, drag down to Document, change the margins, and the click on the Default button and accept the change to the Normal template. Make sure you leave the gutter set to 0” or you’ll mess up your document formatting.